Wikivoyage:Phrasebook article template

[NOTE: This is a template for creating a phrasebook article. Phrasebooks are intended to provide some basic guidance about a language.

To quickly insert a basic blank phrasebook template, copy-and-paste the quick version into the edit box on the page you are editing.

Stuff in italics below is editorial comment, with suggestions for what should go in each section. You should plan on ruthlessly eliminating if you copy this code to a new region article.

When adding creating a new phrasebook, it's also helpful to create a redirect to the phrasebook using just the name of the language. This makes it easy to wikilink to the phrasebook from other articles.]

The introduction to a phrasebook does not have a heading. This is where you would put an overview of the language, giving a brief history, scope (where it's spoken, how many speakers), and any other general info on the language. It might also be useful to list some difficulties of the language for English speakers, such as, but not restricted to, polite vs. familiar forms, declension of nouns, genders, tones, etc. It's preferable not to give a full grammar of the language -- just give some tips on why it might be hard.

This is where you put a full list -- if possible -- of the alphabet or symbol set of the language. For languages that use pictograms -- like Chinese or Japanese -- you can simply give a pronunciation of the most common Romanized script. It will be a good start, at least.

Here follows an (inexpert) guide to the English alphabet; note that it doesn't make a lot of sense, since it's describing many English letters in terms of themselves. This is just an example. Note also that it's split up into vowels, consonants, and diphthongs; these may be appropriate for most European languages, but might not work for others. Split the alphabet up in accordance with the language you're describing.

An overview of phrases can go here. Note that the phrases sections listed below are in a general order of how important they are, and how a traveler would need them. Thus, transportation comes before hotels, which in turn come before restaurants. This ordering is arbitrary but may be helpful. See also Project:Phrasebook Expedition for more details on choosing different phrases.

Do not translate phrases word for word; instead, give the nearest common equivalent in the language. Keep sentences polite, but as short as possible. Give alternatives if a traveler is likely to encounter them.

The following is a phrase guide from English to English; in a real phrase guide, the second part of each entry would be in the target language, and the third part would be an English-like pronunciation suggestion.